State and local weather records

It has been years since snockered friends called me in the middle of the night to settle bar bets about local weather; nevertheless, the subject does arise regularly for all of us. To help, every five or six years I run the major Flathead and Montana weather records from the U.S. Weather Bureau.

Starting in 1896, local volunteers took readings, then the official manned office opened on May 3, 1899. The only weather information we have from earlier times is found in obscure notations by early explorers such as David Thompson.

Temperatures come first: The hottest Flathead day noted was Aug. 4, 1961, when the thermometer in Kalispell hit 105 degrees. Hot as it was, that's relatively cool beside the state record, 117 degrees, recorded in Glendive and Medicine Lake.

The lowest local reading was taken before midnight on Jan. 30, 1950, and it held over to the 31st. It was 38 below zero. State-wide we know the lowest reading ever taken was 70 below recorded the night of Jan. 19 and 20 at Rogers Pass at a temporary reading site east of Lincoln. The Weather Bureau has not ordinarily taken official readings in the higher elevations where the coldest temperatures occur. Imagine what we might get from a thermometer on top of Mt. Cleveland? Anyway, that low reading was taken by a volunteer observer who couldn't go to bed because he had to keep wood in his cabin stove. The actual reading was 69.7 but the specialists in Washington, D.C., examined the thermometer and adjusted the reading to 70. That remains the coldest official mark for the lower 48 states.

The Montana high and low figures together reveal a 187-degree variance, which is also a national record temperature swing for any state in the union… including Alaska, and possibly for the world. Biggest one day state swing was in Browning in 1916 when the mercury fell from a comfortable 44 above to 56 below, another national record. Going up the scale the other way, a chinook wind hitting the east side in 1980 took Great Falls from 32 below to 15 above in seven minutes.

Rainfall is next: The heaviest local rain in these last 100-plus years came down on the valley floor, June 29, 1982 when 2.71 inches fell in 24 hours. There have been huge rains in the highlands that exceeded that by far. Extreme examples are the torrents along the Continental Divide — triggering the devastating floods of 1964. Don't forget the November rains in Glacier Park last year, 2006. Our wettest year in the valley was 1990 with a total precip of 23.93 inches. Remember, there are places in the world like Kawai that get that much in a day. Second wettest Flathead year was 1993 with 23.40 inches, followed by 1995 with 22.64. Total precip includes both snow and rain.

Snow is always of interest: Most that ever fell in 24 hours arrived Dec. 21 and 22, 1951 when we got 15.4 inches. That was made worse by high winds that closed every road in the valley. My father, a skilled driver, started home to Kalispell from Bigfork when the storm began and he didn't make it. Spent two or three days in a farm house at the S curve with his car buried. That record-busting storm dropped a total of 17.2 inches on the valley floor in the two days it was here. Greatest officially measured snowfall out of one Montana storm was in January of 1972 when Marias Pass got 77.5 inches, including five feet in 24 hours, before the sky cleared.

The wind is last WX subject: The strongest one-minute blow, in the valley, was measured at 73 miles per-hour on Jan. 13, 1950. Worst "gust" hit 80 miles per hour on Aug. 20, 1990. It is fairly common to get wind gusts into the 90's on the other side of the divide and sometimes they knock trains off the track at Browning; but the biggest blow was measured below the Rocky Mountain Front on Jan. 25, 1962 at 108 mph. That one snapped 60 power poles for the Sun River Co-op near Augusta. Here on the west side there are rare downslope tornado-like bursts which mow down a few acres of trees, but we don't really get big winds except during election years.

The Flathead's Weather Bureau station, as we knew it for so long, closed in March 1996, so it's a little tougher to dig out our weather history through the Missoula office. Clip this column and file it, especially if you're into bar room betting.

I don't back up losses, but appreciate a modest percentage on winnings. Thank you!

G. George Ostrom is the news director of KOFI radio and a Hungry Horse News columnist.